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In particular, it is absurd to hope to banish envy of other people's possessions or fortunes, if only because the spirit of envy can lead to emulation and ambition and have positive consequences.

Christopher Hitchens

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Christopher Hitchens
Age: 62 †
Born: 1949
Born: April 13
Died: 2011
Died: December 15
Author
Autobiographer
Essayist
Journalist
Literary Critic
Political Scientist
Writer
Portsmouth
England
Christopher Eric Hitchens
Ambition
Fortunes
Lead
Possessions
Positive
Consequences
Particular
Absurd
Hope
Envy
Spirit
Possession
People
Consequence
Emulation
Fortune
Banish

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What better way for a ruling class to claim and hold power than to pose as the defenders of the nation.
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The struggle for a free intelligence has always been a struggle between the ironic and the literal mind.
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I could not possibly improve on the sentiment, but I don't think it ought to depend on the current austerities. Isn't Christmas a moral and aesthetic nightmare whether or not the days are prosperous?
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The search for Nirvana, like the search for Utopia or the end of history or the classless society, is ultimately a futile and dangerous one. It involves, if it does not necessitate, the sleep of reason. There is no escape from anxiety and struggle.
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The Postmodernists' tyranny wears people down by boredom and semi-literate prose.
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The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
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Religion gets its morality from us. We don't get our morality from religion.
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A good liar must have a good memory. Kissinger is a stupendous liar with a remarkable memory.
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I can’t hope to convey the full effect of the embraces and avowals, but I can perhaps offer a crumb of counsel. If there is anybody known to you who might benefit from a letter or a visit, do not on any account postpone the writing or the making of it. The difference made will almost certainly be more than you have calculated
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Of course we have free will because we have no choice but to have it.
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Henry Kissinger should have the door shut in his face by every decent person and should be shamed, ostracized and excluded.
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Everyone in Iran is perceived to be a child with a paternal authority vested in the Guardian Council and the Sufi elders. They're supposed to be grateful. They can never for a moment not be afforded this wonderful protection. The father who will never go away. The father who will never quit caring for them.
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It's normally agreed that the question 'How are you?' doesn't put you on your oath to give a full or honest answer.
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The amazing fact is that America is founded on a document. It's a work in progress. It can be tested by each generation.
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Solidarity is an attitude of resistance, I suppose, or it should be.
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Suppose there were groups of secularists at hospitals who went round the terminally ill and urged them to adopt atheism: 'Don't be a mug all your life. Make your last days the best ones. People might suppose this was in poor taste.
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